Characters
As of April, 2012, only five of the Topsiders have been identified by name - "Jim", "Ian", "Bill", "Doug" and "Linda" and four of the five didn't last long, Linda being the exception. Most of the named characters live in Endtown, while one was an inhabitant of a Topside city called Hillside, and another is a nomad bumming around in the Waste on the surface. Albert Anderson A tall, lean, lanky black-haired male. Al is one of the few people to have kept his human form after being exposed to the mutagen. He starts out as the main lead in the story, scavenging one of the ruins for food. He lives with Gustine, and is friends with Professor Mallard. Al is resourceful and a quick thinker. Gustine Greene A 700 pound rhinoceros suffering from schism syndrome. Because she has not yet adjusted to being a rhino with poor eyesight and little patience, Gustine consults an oracle for advice on how to turn back human. She is then given a quest to go to Hillside for the fruit of a plant that supposedly has mystic properties. At the end of the arc, she remains a rhino. In a dream flashback, she is shown to have been a short, stocky black woman prior to The End. Professor Nikolai Xavier (N.X.) Mallard, Ph.D The resident mad scientist responsible for keeping Endtown running and for creating the hand-cranked blasters used by the Endtowners to protect themselves Topside. Mallard is a duck. Sam "Sparkplug" Sanders Formerly an engineer working for Apex Industries in Hillside. He's the one that realized that Amesworth Radiation had military capabilities. He also refused to proceed on the work any further and was removed from the project. He then focused on finding a way to make himself and his family immune to the radiation. Unfortunately, he was a little too late, having bombarded himself with some kind of energy just before his partner, Agnes, and their daughter, April, were mutated. He is shown having killed the monster Agnes had become, after she had eaten April. He's then essentially immortal following The End, living alone in Hillside, being tormented by the "dittos" which keep replaying his memories for him every night. Sparkplug is last seen falling from a building several hundred feet up and is presumably killed by the impact. Petey A brain that had been "wiped" and wired into a Topsider transport vehicle. Initially, he was pretty satisfied with being a truck. He was given his name by Al, derived from "Personnel Transport" (PT). He has virtually no memories of his past life, but he does at least recognize "Blackie", and was eventually put into Professor Mallard's robot to be taken to Endtown. He is currently insanely strong, and can fly using his "hat" and wheel "propellers". When told that Flask was going to wipe out an entire Topsider colony as a "gift" for him, Petey balks at the idea of killing young children and noncombatants, even if they are the enemy. Rather than bonding in any way with Flask, Petey has fallen in love with another Transport. In Flask's flashback (starting with the 120831 strip), Petey is revealed to have been a humanoid mutant captured by the Topsiders for vivisection, but saved by Flask. Capt. Philomena (Blackie) Flask Flask is a large cat currently acting as the chief of Endtown security. She is ruthless, unforgiving, and driven by nightmares of her life prior to coming to Endtown. In the 120118 strip, she is identified as the ex-chief architect of the Topsider's spy satellite rocket project. Starting with the 120828 flashback, Flask is revealed to have been a Topsider that disapproved of torturing humanoid mutants. She released the one that later turns into Petey, and they fell in love. She taught Petey-to-be how to rip open her Topsider suit and mutated into a lioness while asleep. When she awoke, Petey-to-be was missing and she was captured by a Topsider patrol and returned to her colony. The torture she was subjected to presumably turned her into a sadist. She eventually cracked and ripped off her own tail. She escaped the colony and was discovered by an Endtown patrol before she could commit suicide. Jacob (Jake) Jackrabbit An ultra-conservative reporter for the Endtown newspaper, is also the leader of an anti-human association. His fear and loathing of humans (mutated or not) mirrors that of the Topsiders towards anthros. Jake holds "self-acceptance seminars" which are really recruiting sessions for his lynch mob. In Jake's association, changing one's last name to that of one's anthro type shows that you've come to terms with being an anthro. Wally Wallechinsky A cat that had been suffering from schism syndrome living in the ruins Topside, with something of a death wish. He tries to keep to himself, but is forced into coming to Endtown, where he gets jumped by two mutants desperate to get whatever food he brought from the surface. Hospitalized with a cerebral contusion, he is tended by Doc Chase and Holly, and relieved of his syndrome symptoms by Holly. The two of them fall in love. In a flashback starting with the March 28, 2012, strip, we learn that Wally had been an engineer with Apex, designing schools in the battle zone bordering Hillside, and that all Apex employees eventually carry a gun in the field as soldiers. He was set up by his commander to assist in slaughtering the family of a teacher he had gotten too friendly with. Holly Hollister A 30-year old female mouse working as a waitress at an Endtown cafe. She unexpectedly finds herself being responsible for helping Wally after he gets hospitalized. Holly is a fast runner and fully adapted to her life as a mutant ("after having discovered the joys of Camembert"). She helps Wally adjust to being a cat, and the two of them fall in love. She then follows Wally Topside for the mission in the "Countdown" arc. Cooper One of the few minor supporting Endtown resident characters to receive a name. Little is known about him other than that he has a fish head that occasionally falls off, and that he was "self-medicating" when he mutated. Cooper laid down the rules of mutations that bear his name. Cooper's Rule states that a victim that mutates while conscious will become "nightmare fuel" (i.e. - a monster); if unconscious or in the womb will turn anthro; and if self-medicated, ends up "weird". Linda Kowalski (Team leader of Beta 51), the only Topsider so far to last more than 10 strips, first appears in "Countdown". Little is known about her personal life yet, other than that she has a son (living in Pine Valley, Dome 3). She had been partnered with "Doug", a 17-year-old Topsider that had been blasted by Flask. Flask then proceeded to attempt to torture her by puncturing a weak spot near the ear protector of her suit to turn her into a rampaging monster to kill. However Wally stunned Linda in time, allowing her to mutate, unconscious (thus supporting "Cooper's Rule" that unconscious people turn into anthros) into a koala. Linda was unaware that the rocket she and Doug were guarding was a fake. Aaron Marx Marx has been described in email conversations with Neathery as being his Tom Bombadil character. So far, very little is known about Marx beyond that he travels in a ship dangling from a balloon, salvaging scrap from the surface. He can walk on air using "string theory", "has no need for sleep" and is able to exert control over dittos. He appears to be an unmutated human wearing 1800's formal wear and spats, and seems intent on learning Flask's backstory.